Kyle and her husband moved to Brookfield in 1986. She became active in local politics and started blogging in 2004. Her focus is primarily on local issues but often includes state and national topics, too. Kyle looks at things from the taxpayers' perspective in a creative, yet down to earth way, addressing them from a practical point of view.

This puts these lands off limits to his precious wind and solar too and what about that new power grid? Guess it goes on YOUR property!

I can't speak to vacant land east of the Mississippi, but I can tell you out west there are miles upon miles of open range nothing. Much of this land is not a National Treasure. It is unwanted Federal land.

In New Jersey, "Great Falls, that powered Paterson's rise as one of the nation's first industrial cities will become a national park."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29880510/

Wilderness preservation bill passes in House

March 25 2009

WASHINGTON - Congress on Wednesday set aside
more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness — from
California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest
in Virginia.

The legislation is on its way to President Barack Obama for his likely signature.

The House approved the bill, 285-140, the final step in a long legislative road that began last year.

The vote came two weeks after the House
rejected the bill amid a partisan dispute over gun rights. The measure
was brought up again in the Senate and approved last week, setting up
Wednesday's vote.

The
bill — a collection of nearly 170 separate measures — marks the largest
expansion of wilderness protection in 15 years. It will confer the
government's highest level of protection on land in California,
Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and West
Virginia.

Supporters
called the bill landmark legislation that will strengthen the national
park system, restore national forests, preserve wild and scenic rivers,
protect battlefields and restore balance to the management of public
lands.

Opponents,
mostly Republicans, called the bill a "land grab" that would block
energy development on vast swaths of federal land.

"After
nearly a decade during which our parks were taken for granted and our
range lands were scarred by a spider-web of roads and (drilling) well
pads," the lands bill "represents a new dawn for America's heritage and
American values," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House
Natural Resources Committee.

Critics cite energy needsRep.
Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and other Republicans complained that the
measure would lock up millions of acres of land that could be explored
for energy and used for other development.

"Our
nation can't afford to shut down the creation of jobs for jobless
Americans, and we can't afford to become even more dependent on foreign
sources of energy," Hastings said.

The bill "even locks up federal lands from renewable energy production, including wind and solar," he said.

Hastings
and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to
allow visitors to national parks to carry concealed, loaded weapons. A
federal judge last week struck down a Bush administration rule allowing
loaded guns in parks and wildlife refuges.

Because of a parliamentary rule adopted in the Senate, the House took up the bill under a rule that blocked amendments.

Land
to be protected in the bill ranges from California's Sierra Nevada
mountain range and Oregon's Mount Hood to Rocky Mountain National Park
in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

Land in Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks
National Lakeshore in Michigan and Zion National Park in Utah also
would win designation as wilderness, and more than 1,000 miles of
rivers in nearly a dozen states would gain protections. The proposals
would expand wilderness designation — which blocks nearly all
development — into areas that now are not protected.

Alaska road controversyThe
bill also would let Alaska go forward with plans to build an airport
access road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge as part of a
land swap that would transfer more than 61,000 acres to the federal
government, much of it designated as wilderness.

The
project calls for a gravel road through the refuge, which is home to
hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, salmon, caribou and other
animals.

Environmentalists and some Democrats call the road another Alaska boondoggle and say it would be an environmental disaster.

Supporters,
including all three Alaska members of Congress, say the road is needed
to connect a remote village on the Bering Sea that now uses a
hovercraft to reach an airport and hospital.

Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. if (window.Pol_090325_Wilderness_bill) { displayApp(Pol_090325_Wilderness_bill); }

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